Orlando

The name George Frideric Handel rarely connotes opera, and so Scottish Opera’s production of Orlando comes as a novelty for even the most steadfast of aficionados. There is something refreshing about going to the opera without bias (excepting the vague idea that Handel employs a pleasing profusion of strings and horns).

Originally written in 1719, this version of Orlando is set in 1939 and tells the story of a brave soldier divided by love and duty, driven mad by the faithlessness of his lover, Angelica (Sally Silver). This fickle woman is in love with Medoro (Andrew Radley), who is in turn loved passionately by the charming Nurse Dorinda (Claire Booth). But when Orlando discovers Angelica’s duplicity he swears bloody vengeance until Doctor Zoroastro (Andreas Wolf) restores him to sanity via electroconvulsive therapy. Orlando is described in the programme as 'one of the jewels of Baroque opera', and SO’s production, directed by Harry Fehr, whose previous credits with SO include Cinderella and The Secret Marriage, does sparkle in places.

The orchestra performed magnificently under Paul Goodwin (in his SO debut), the set was simple yet striking and the costumes were superb. However, the pleasure of opera arguably lies in the transcendence of emotion over language, and much of its brilliance has been lost in the translation from Italian to English. With no need to look to the supertitles for plot, one’s eye was drawn to the projections on the backdrop which were heavy-handed, at one point looking more like an advertisement for a jewellers than the appropriate visual accompaniment to the degeneration of a man’s mind.

In translating Orlando Scottish Opera have allegedly made opera more accessible ‘to young people,’ but the result is a less affecting piece of music, as performers struggle to give meaning to their lines. At one point Orlando (Tim Mead) was trying so hard to enunciate that his voice was overwhelmed by the orchestra, a shameful tax on his talent. He and the undeniably gifted Radley sang countertenor and the falsetto effect was more than slightly jarring, but Booth saved many scenes with her passionate but playful performance. Ultimately there is no doubt that great talent is on display in Orlando but much of it is undermined by the distracting projections and the folly of translating sublime Italian into sentimental English.